Meeting Documentation Requirements to Solve Chiropractic Billing issues

Have you been spending valuable time dictating reports? Are transcription costs eating up your bottom line? If yes, you need to invest more time meeting documentation requirements or else coding and billing errors will disrupt your cash flow.

• Denied claims and underpayments are majorly caused by lack of sufficient and accurate documentation
• Approximately $1.5 billion was spent in re-filing and correction of denied claims in 2012 caused by inaccurate documentation
• Not just patient details but many claims are also denied due to missing signature of the providers on the submitted documentation

Compared to traditional health care providers, chiropractors face more issues in running a private practice. Many of these problems are related to unique demands for establishing “medical necessity” with precisely coded, comprehensive documentation. If you execute this process manually, you need to invest sufficient time in ensuring documentation accuracy.

Challenges faced by chiropractic practices:

• Chiropractors have to face a full menu of practice requirements, complemented by HIPAA and other federal measures
• It becomes difficult for chiropractors to convince traditionally oriented payers for the efficacy of body’s natural healing propensities enlisted in chiropractic
• More details are demanded by insurance companies such as physical examination and compete history of patients
• If documentation is not accurate, outside payer consultants pose issues in giving payment
• In case chiropractors seek help from transcriptionists, it adds to their administrative costs without ruling out the chances of delayed deliveries and errors

Chiropractors face more issues in terms of type and amount of documentation. Constraints of managed care, increase in regulatory demands and patient retention rates also affect the level of accuracy for chiropractors.

• Typically, one in every five working days of a chiropractor gets consumed in reporting and manual clinical documentation
• Approximately 18.9% time of a typical chiropractors goes into clinical documentation and reporting

Due to the time being devoted in documentation, chiropractors are not able to give more time for patient care. They are finding it difficult to prepare for ICD-10 which will also be impacting documentation, making sure that it matches the required level of specificity.

Inaccurate documentation leads to denied claims:

Chiropractors need to understand that timely reimbursements will be possible only when accurate patient records are maintained and used for claim submission. They can get paid and stand insurance audits only when they fulfil the demand for extensive details, including patient history and physical examination details to insurance companies.

So, if you want to boost your income without affecting chiropractic coding and billing, make sure the services you offer are well-documented. But considering the difficulties faced by chiropractors in balancing patient care and RCM, less time is left to concentrate on documentation, due to which outsourcing billing and coding services to a billing partner makes sense.

Medicalbillersandcoders.com is the largest consortium of certified and experienced coders and billers, offering error-free, coding-verified documentation services for chiropractic practices. The team at MBC is well trained in assisting chiropractors improve the documentation process and enhance cash flow. We will offer you assistance in updating your electronic health record related software to save your practice from documentation errors.

---

Published By - Medical Billers and Coders
Published Date - May-23-2014 Back